Gertrude’s as Shakespeare Essay

Where a twenty-first century audience would express sympathy for Hamlet’s loss and would understand his hesitation in taking vengeance, an Elizabethan audience would not sympathise towards him for avenging his father’s death, and would question why Hamlet is showing inaction. As Dori Ripley suggests, ‘The church advocated God’s vengeance, while the state demanded justice through God’s chosen representative(s)’ (Ripley, 1), meaning it would be Hamlet’s duty to avenge his father’s death in the eyes of the Elizabethan Church, for God’s cause. Therefore, this would certainly contribute to Hamlet’s turmoil, with the added pressure to ‘exact God’s vengeance on the wicked’ (Ripley, 2), and become King of Denmark. However, in the eighteenth century, Thomas Hanmer drew attention to Hamlet’s delay in avenging his father’s death, suggesting that ‘Had Hamlet gone naturally to work there would have been an end of our play’, meaning Shakespeare’s play would not have been as dramatic for his intended audience of his era. Ernest Jones suggests that Hamlet refrains from killing Claudius earlier in the play because he had already committed the deed Hamlet himself subconsciously wished to carry out; ‘The long â€Å"repressed† desire to take his father’s place in his mother’s affection is revealed in unconscious activity by the sight of someone usurping this place exactly as he himself had once longed to do’ (Jones, 99). This is evident in the play when Hamlet has the opportunity to kill Claudius, however he decides to wait for when he is in ‘th’incestuous pleasure of his bed’ so he is guaranteed to suffer the same pain Hamlet’s father did when he was in purgatory. Eliminating his competition in the most torturous way suggests Hamlet’s hatred towards Claudius for marrying his mother. As an extension of this Hamlet is somewhat hostile to his mother throughout the play, shown through the language Shakespeare uses when Hamlet is alone with her. His anger towards his mother’s sexuality is expressed, thus: O shame, where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as wax (3. 4. 82-4) Hamlet demands to know how young people can be expected to control their passions if mothers cannot control theirs. In the same scene, Hamlet pleads with Gertrude not to sleep with Claudius that night and to, Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence (3. 4. 166-8) After that until she no longer wishes to sleep with Claudius. Whether this is right must be considered in psychoanalytic terms because abstinence stores up emotions that leads to a later emotional explosion. In the context of the play as a whole, this is symbolic because throughout Hamlet stores up his confusion, anxiety and turmoil until he explodes in the final scene, ending in death and destruction of the dynasty. Recent developments in Hamlet criticism suggest Hamlet’s attitude towards his mother can be explained in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis, in particular the Oedipus Complex where ‘unconscious ideas and feelings centre round the wish to possess the parent of the opposite sex, and eliminate that of the same sex’ (Rycroft, 118), according to Charles Rycroft in ‘A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis’. Although this is a modern theory which did not exist during the Shakespearean period, Shakespeare unconsciously reflects this possible interpretation of character in the play. Hamlet seeking to avenge his father by eliminating Claudius, his mother’s husband, could be one of his motivations and subsequent causes of his emotional turmoil. His confusion is, therefore, redirected onto Ophelia who experiences Hamlet’s anguish. Rycroft also suggests that this is symbolised in Hamlet as ‘persons who are fixated at the oedipal level that are mother-fixated or father-fixated reveal this by choosing sexual partners with obvious resemblances to their parents’ (Rycroft 119). However, Ophelia’s qualities are not representative of Gertrude’s as Shakespeare suggests Gertrude tends to sexually dominate men in the play whereas Ophelia is obedient to them, suggesting she is vulnerable. Therefore, whether Rycroft’s analysis is related to the play must be considered because it does not directly link to Hamlet’s situation, choosing to have a relationship with Ophelia because she resembles his mother he has sexual desires for. In Gertrude marrying Claudius, Hamlet’s jealousy is provoked, which eventually contributes to his rage when alone with his mother, ‘You are queen, your husband’s brother’s wife’. Here, Shakespeare shows Hamlet’s confusion within his complex situation, that his mother has become queen by incestuously marrying her husband’s brother. Combined with Hamlet’s oedipal fantasy and his mother’s new marriage, therefore, he is bound to show rage and confusion towards his mother and hostility towards her new partner. In conclusion, Hamlet is a character whose mind is in turmoil, which is subliminally presented through Shakespeare’s use of soliloquies. This turmoil could exist due to Hamlet’s life experiences, whether they were his father’s death or his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle, who murdered his father. These occurrences may have caused Hamlet’s confusion between mothers and lovers, his contemplation of suicide and his hostility towards others, resulting in catastrophe at the end of the play. An Elizabethan audience would not sympathise with Hamlet’s hostility towards other and his delay in taking vengeance and so could argue that his mind is in turmoil, the reason why he is inactive.